Yokohama Urban Tyre Comparison 10% Further

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Ian Luff Motivation Australia P/L was engaged by Yokohama Tyres Australia to carry out an independent fuel consumption test using it’s new ‘Blue Earth AE01’ tyre and it’s standard ‘A Drive’ tyre.

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The test was carried out in a closed private venue (Sydney Dragway – Drag Strip), the test method used, was to drain the fuel from the vehicles fuel tank completely.Then fill it with exactly 2 litres of fuel and drive it until the vehicle stops, recording all the information relating to its efficiency. This test was then repeated using the comparison tyre and repeated.

Initially the test was carried out with just one car, however the environmental conditions changed dramatically between one set of tyres and the other. In the interests of conducting a legitimate test it was determined this was inaccurate and the test was abandoned.

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Given this situation the test was rescheduled and two identical cars where driven at the same time with the two comparison tyres on each car, the test would then be repeated, swapping the tyres from one car to the other. This gave an accurate assessment of the tyres fuel saving performance in the same conditions.

The vehicle used to test these tyres was a standard road registered Toyota Corolla, the tyre size being tested was 205/55/R16

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Findings

The test proved to be a very clear-cut comparison with the vehicle fitted with the new Yokohama Blue Earth AE01 tyres travelling further than the car fitted with the Yokohama ‘A Drive’ tyres.

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Over the given course the Blue Earth AE01 tyre travelled a further 3.2km’s representing a 10.3% fuel saving when compared to the ‘A Drive’ tyre. This finding was backed up by the second comparison completed with similar findings.

The weather conditions at the time of the test were mild, there was no rain or wind evident, this can only be regarded as an accurate assessment of the tyres that relate directly to fuel consumption performance.

Rolling test

Both tyres where subjected to a standard rolling test, this was carried out using a tilt tray tow truck, two test were conducted to see how far the vehicle rolled from the back of the tow truck unassisted.

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The two testes were carried out using the two different tyres separately and the distance the vehicle rolled was measured. During both tests the angle of the tilt tray was measured and set to the exact same height off the ground.

This test proved conclusively that the Blue Earth AE01 tyre rolled significantly further, thus proving a lower rolling resistance. This test proved that compared to the standard A Drive, the Blue Earth Yokohama tyre rolled a lot easier and resulted in a further distance travelled for the same effort applied.

Driver Feedback

Q. Did you notice a difference when driving on the Blue Earth AE01 tyre to that of the Standard A Drive tyre?

Ian Luff. “yes to me the car felt like it was smoother, it is hard to describe but it felt like once rolling the car didn’t want to stop”

Stewart Nicholls. “straight away from the moment I started driving on the Blue Earth tyre I knew it was different, there even appeared to be less noise and I was able to keep the vehicle in the economy zone a lot easier using that rubber”